Britnee Kinard is always raising puppies. And as anyone who has ever done so knows, that can be an around-the-clock job. She doesn’t believe in kennels, so that means they live alongside her in her home. She handles the potty training and crate training. She provides them with space to grow and develop. And she makes sure they are used to living in a house where they are loved.
“I know that sounds weird, but I think a service dog should be in a home setting,” Kinard said.
As the founder and CEO of SD Gunner Fund in Richmond Hill, Georgia, Kinard is the first person to spend consistent time with the dogs. Kinard is sure that what she is doing is worth it — because once the dogs are old enough, they move into a foster home or are placed with an individual who needs a service animal. Either way, she knows they will become significant in the life of someone who needs them.
SD Gunner Fund recently received a $20,000 donation as part of VyStar Foundation’s military grant cycle. Ensuring military members, veterans and their families receive the social services they need and the recognition they deserve is one of the Foundation’s strategic pillars, and SD Gunner Fund was one of 10 nonprofit organizations selected. Kinard’s work is an important reason why.
“A lot of people have the impression that nonprofits get a lot of stuff for free,” Kinard said. “We’re just like a business, we still have to pay people. My trainers still have to put food on the table. I still have to pay them. My veterinarian is not working for free either. We’ve got vet care, we’ve got trainers, we’ve got food, we’ve got all this stuff that we have to provide.”
Providing for others is what SD Gunner Fund is all about.
Starting SD Gunner Fund
Kinard started small when she founded SD Gunner Fund in 2014. Her husband, Hamilton, was living with a severe traumatic brain injury after serving 20 years in the military, and although he was paired with a service dog, they discovered that there were many financial obstacles to navigate once the dog was his. Around that same time, a friend of Hamilton’s had a service dog taken away from him because he couldn’t afford the veterinarian bills.
SD Gunner Fund was created to stop situations like that from happening.
“That’s what we did,” Kinard said of SD Gunner Fund’s early days. “We provided you with the financial means to obtain and maintain service animals.”
Over time, the organization started doing more than that. As people kept calling to ask if Kinard trained dogs, she realized that there was more she could do to make a difference. Before long, she started finding people who could help her train the dogs. Today, she has five full-time trainers working for the organization, in addition to others who provide specialized service as needed.
A $20,000 donation is enough money for Kinard to fully train two service dogs. However, instead of funneling all the money into two dogs, SD Gunner Fund takes donations of that size and spreads the money out so they’re able to get the early training done for about 15 dogs.
“I can work on the funding and fundraising elsewhere,” Kinard said. “But it helps me get those dogs started.”
Kinard joked that SD Gunner Fund’s Board “probably hates me” because she doesn’t like to say no when someone reaches out with a request for a service animal. Her selflessness can result in a lot of extra work in some circumstances. But it can also lead to incredible results.
Specialized Assistance: How SD Gunner Fund Changes Lives
Sami Rowe-Tillinghast is a veteran who has benefitted from SD Gunner Fund’s work.
Shortly after having her second child, Row-Tillinghast realized she had developed an extreme allergy. A dietician determined wheat and gluten were triggering her symptoms — anything from body pain to anaphylaxis. Even trace amounts of gluten in her food were problematic. She started to suffer from anxiety when she was out in public due to her fear that she would come into contact with wheat, which was layered on top of anxiety she had stemming from her time in the Army.
Knowing that she was in need of assistance, Rowe-Tillinghast reached out to SD Gunner Fund to find out if she could get a dog to help with the problem.
“When she called us, I literally asked her, I was like, ‘Are you for real? Or is this like some kind of diet fad,’” Kinard said.
It was not a fad. In fact, there was once a mix up when Rowe-Tillinghast and Kinard were out to eat together. After taking one sip of her drink, Rowe-Tillinghast ended up on the floor, violently ill. She ended up in the emergency room that day.
Understanding the extreme circumstances Rowe-Tillinghast was living with, Kinard went to work. She reached out to her contacts in the dog training community but did not have much immediate luck. Eventually, she found a trainer several states away who agreed to take on the challenge. But because Rowe-Tillinghast was paired with the dog and building a bond, they couldn’t send the dog away to be trained. The training had to happen over Zoom calls.
“We trained her pup the first six months, and then the 18 months she spent with the trainer via Zoom,” Kinard said.
Rowe-Tillinghast met with the trainer two to three times per week for sessions that lasted two hours. She built the training sessions into her schedule, after long days working at her day job. The process wasn’t easy, but eventually her dog, SD Norbert, could alert her if there was anything nearby that might trigger an allergic reaction.
“It put a lot of stress on her because it’s a lot of elbow grease on her part,” Kinard said. “You’re going to see really quickly how committed someone is when they have to do all the work because I don’t have a trainer physically present.”
While Rowe-Tillinghast’s situation proved to be uncommon, every veteran is unique with their own challenges.
Always There for Others
LeAnn Donahey knows a thing or two about challenges. She served in the Army National Guard from 2010 to 2018 and started dealing with strange symptoms in 2015. Doctors discovered she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but she said there was much more to it than that. She also had the extremely rare condition of Paraneoplastic Syndrome.
“Basically, my immune system attacked my nervous system, thinking it was cancer,” Donahey said. “But it wasn’t the cancer. It was my nerves — and it left me paralyzed.”
It’s taken years for Donahey to regain the ability to walk. She still doesn’t have any feeling from her waist to her toes or from her shoulders to her fingertips. Donahey’s balance is often off when she walks around, which makes her feel self-conscious when she’s in public.
That feeling goes away when she’s with her dog, SD Finley. People look at Finley and ask what kind of dog he is. She lights up knowing the spotlight is off her condition and instead is on the dog.
Finley is a Goldador, a mix of a Golden Retriever and a black Labrador Retriever. Donahey said it’s the perfect breed because she can rely on Finley for emotional support, but more importantly, he’s big enough to support her weight if she needs help getting off the ground or simply walking a few steps.
Donahey and Finley are the perfect pair, and she said the people involved with SD Gunner Fund are like her extended family. Donahey began volunteering with SD Gunner Fund and spending time with other veterans going through similar situations. She shares what she went through with the others. Often times, they share what they’re going through with her, she said, but sometimes they don’t feel like sharing.
“Not everybody likes to talk about what they’ve been through,” Donahey said. “Not everybody likes to give you information on their disability or PTSD or what they’ve been through, which is fine.”
But for veterans partnering with SD Gunner Fund, they all have one thing in common: the dogs. Donahey said the veterans often spend time together outside of training. And if anyone calls to talk, she is there.
Just like Finley and Kinard are always there for her.
SD Gunner Fund: Reaching More People with Service Dogs
At some point in their life, seven out of every 100 veterans will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It’s important for those veterans to have a support system. Whether that support system is a dog to lean on when their legs are weak or a trainer to hop on a Zoom call after a long day of work, SD Gunner Fund is filling that void.
SD Gunner Fund continues to expand and also provides service dogs to people with special needs and first responders who need service dogs. They have even started a therapy dog program where the dogs work full time in schools or in pediatric facilities.
When someone calls SD Gunner Fund, there’s a good chance they’ll end up with a dog that was once a puppy living in Kinard’s house, getting raised by the organization’s founder and CEO.
If you or someone you know needs support or assistance, please visit the SD Gunner Fund website to learn more.